If you have never experienced vertigo, consider yourself blessed.
It’s estimated that 20% of vertigo is due to displacement of calcium crystals in our inner ear. These crystals (“otoconia”) are super important as they act as balance and orientation keepers of our body working in conjunction with a gelatin environment and fine hairs that send signals to the brain telling it the orientation of your head. If the Otoconia get displaced and escape into the ear canal, they need to be “moved” back to their original position. A physician named Epley invented a procedure to put the otoconia back into position. This whole condition is called BPPV Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo.
It’s pretty cool that Nature has crafted such intricate engineering to help you maintain balance.
When you lose physical balance we know it immediately and react to it. It’s an involuntary response.
It takes us a while for us to respond to aspects that go out of balance or to change behaviors that promote balance. A life long pursuit, in my opinion.
In the Bhagavad Gita in Chapter 14, Lord Krishna says that Nature has three GunAs (qualities). It’s also described as three modes of Physical Nature.
Satthva – the quality that attaches to Happiness, Knowledge
Rajas – the quality that causes us to act, the quality to change, to cause turbulence, seek power.
Tamas – quality of disinterestedness, ignorance, inertia.
Initially, I thought to try to tie the balance theme to the three GunAs, but didn’t really succeed in convincing myself about the balance between them. The Gita doesn’t advocate for a balance between the three, but states the effects of each and highly encourages the promotion of the pure Satthva GuNa.
To explore this further, here is an interesting article I came upon.
Stay grounded as there is a lot happening now that’s throwing us off balance.
